Travel Article on Tallinn Estonia

By Ruth Ellen Gruber

(This post also appears on my En Route blog for the Los Angeles Jewish Journal)



I've never been to Tallinn, but by all accounts it is a beautiful city. Hadassah Magazine runs a richly detailed travel piece on Tallinn, highlighting in particular detail its Jewish sites and history. The article is by Jono David -- a photographer who has roamed the world documenting Jewish heritage sites (his current project is a photo documentation of Jewish sites in Africa).

You can browse Jono's vast archive of more than 61,000 images from 87 countries and territories at his web site: http://www.jewishphotolibrary.com/

In his Tallinn piece, Jono writes: "Many of the Jewish remnants of the past have few or no markers. During much of the Soviet era, the community maintained a prayer house at 9 Magdalena Street, not far from Old Town. Originally a warehouse, the extant building is in a derelict state. A prayer room at 23 Kreutzwaldi Street preceded it between 1946 and 1966, but it was demolished to make room for a hotel."

But he provides information on what there is still to see and describes today's living Jewish community and its institutions.

You can find even more information on Tallinn and Estonia on the Estonia pages of the Jewish Heritage Europe web site.

Bon Odori 2012 at Taman Desa Tebrau, Johor Bahru

As usual, the yearly Bon Odori 2012 event had just over and this year the event was held at Taman Desa Tebrau (which is behind Aeon Jusco Shopping Complex Tebrau City). (Total of 39 photos...be patient on the loading...)

Before the event start, a extremely heavy rain pour down...and I thought...Oh! No....it might going to spoil the mood of everyone who planned to have fun in Bon Odori. But fortunately, I was Wrong! The rain stop around 6.30pm and I see the peoples visited to the event in gourp by group non-stop! Great!

Bon Odori 2012 at Johor Bahru

The Bon Odori Dance had started when we were there...

Bon Odori Dance

The cute little girls had attracted many peoples to took photos of them...:)

The mother and her cute little girl...

This year, the dance was different where peoples dance on the stage and also circle the stage on ground level! Good response!

The stage of Bon Odori 2012, Johor Bahru.

Before we started to walk around the area and the activities, we decided to fill up our stomach first....variety of foods in that evening, even some are non Japanese food...

Japanese Oden. One Cup - RM6...anyone?

Very popular Rice-cake stall (above) where you can hear some kind of slogan : "Hei-sho! Hei-sho!" all the time...

They will bring the bunch of flour for the women to finish packing for customer...I didn't try it because of the Long Queue! This Japanese Rie-cake should be Delicious...!

The women packed it (top), and the customers queuing for it (bottom).

I like the BBQ Chicken very much! Nice!

If I'm not mistaken, this is the Japanese restaurant (above) at Crystal Crown Hotel, JB (correct me if I'm wrong).
Every year, the Kinsahi's stall will be Pack with peoples and it was no different this year too!

Kinsahi booth was Full of peoples!

Pan fried dumplings...

BBQ Sweet corns, anyone?

We settled our dinner in this booth and I had a onion fried rice from other booth, Nice! During the dinner time, the stage had the 1 Malaysia dance that I miss the chance to take photos...luckily manage to took some on the last Culture dance...

The photograhers started their busy moment...

Follow by the game activities....you can look for these games (below) at the Honda booth...

The Game session...

Met a group of pretty ladies on the Bon Odori that evening...

Before the Japanese Drum Performance start, I took a chance to walked to their preparation booth to snap some photos...

The two pretty drummers from 鬼太鼓

The leader had some short briefing and encouragement for the Japanese Drummers

Huge crowd of audience had positioned in front of the stage before the Drum Performance start, one of my favorite performance on every year Bon Odori!

The stage and the audience...

The Drums set up was done fast and perferct before 8.15pm!

The preparation of the Japanese Drum Performance

And the show started...

The Japanese Drum Performance was performed by the teams from Penang, Kuala Lumpur and Johor Bahru.

I enjoyed the show VERY MUCH!!

The last performance on that evening was the 2nd Bon Odori Dance...tremendous response from the public! Everyone (included children) was happy to dance together and the moment was Great!

The Bon Odori Dance

The 4 cute little girls

I like the dancing style of this senior...

Some pretties spotted...

Everyone was circle the stage and the Bon Odori Dancers were having fun on the stage too! Beside that, the senior drummer performed again in the middle of them...

Bon Odori dance on the stage

The senior drummer...

The Bon Odori encore once...requested by the public...Yeah!

Sometimes I just felt the time passed so fast...after the dance, it came to the end of the event and we have to wait for another year again! We had another unforgettable evening at the Bon Odori 2012!

For those who miss this event, don't miss it next year! It can be a joyful evening for you and your family!
See you next year!

Related post :-
*  Bon Odori JB 2011

Location map of Bon Odors 2012 at Taman Desa Tebrau, Johor Bahru

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In Budapest, a Different Kind of Jewish "Jewish" Cafe

Mazel Tov... Photo © Ruth Ellen Gruber

By Ruth Ellen Gruber

This post also appears on my En Route blog for the Los Angeles Jewish Journal

Thanks to CEU professor Daniel Monterescu for introducing me to the Mazel Tov cafe in Budapest's 13th district. On first look, it seems similar to the "Jewish style" cafes in Krakow and elsewhere in eastern Europe, where sepia-colored shtetl nostalgia is the norm....But at Mazel Tov the decor is actually very different.

Inside Mazel Tov. Photo © Ruth Ellen Gruber

Outside, the cafe's name is written in Hebrew-style letters, and inside, its walls are covered by pictures -- as at the "Jewish-style" cafes elsewhere that I have visited and written so much about in the past.

But these are not the "usual" pictures of bearded sages, rabbis, antique-style Jewish genre scenes and the like.

In the Ariel Cafe, Krakow. Photo © Ruth Ellen Gruber

Instead, Mazel Tov's walls are covered by pictures of living Jews -- Jewish celebrities -- from Mark Zuckerberg of Facebook to Woody Allen to Barbra Streisland, Leonard Bernstein and even the Hungarian philosopher Agnes Heller.

On the surface, it looks similar. But the focus is totally different from the other places. (Though in Krakow my favorite Jewish-style cafe, Klezmer Hois, does also include a lot of pictures of real, live Jews on its walls -- most if not all of whom have been patrons of the establishment.)

Judaica for sale in Mazel Tov. Photo © Ruth Ellen Gruber

Mazel Tov is located in what was a modern Jewish neighborhood (pre-WW2) and on a street where there is a small synagogue that still operates. It is run by a Jewish woman, there are some Judaica items on sale, Israeli pop music was playing, and there is a mezuzah at the door.

But it's not kosher -- on the menu are ham and cheese sandwiches. (But this is also typically secular Budapest Jewishness.....)

Me in Mazel Tov cafe. Photo: Dan Monterescu

Medieval Jewish Banquet in Italy

Honey-nut sweets served on bay leaves. Photo © Ruth Ellen Gruber

By Ruth Ellen Gruber

This post also appears on my En Route blog for the Los Angeles Jewish Journal.

Biancomangiare, lentil soup, twice-roasted goose with garlic, sweet and sour baked onion salad, Ippocrasso (spiced white wine), honey-nut sweets.

These were the dishes served at a Medieval Jewish banquet that recreated a meal that Jews in Italy might have eaten in the 14th and 15th centuries.

The event took place in Bevagna, a stunningly beautiful town in Italy's Umbria region -- whose historic center looks much the same as it did way back then.

Entering Bevagna. Photo © Ruth Ellen Gruber

The dinner, in a so-called Medieval Tavern in the heart of the town, capped a little academic conference on medieval Jewish life in Bevagna. I wrote about the dinner for JTA, in an article that also included the recipes for the dishes we ate. The first course was Biancomangiare, a puree made from chicken breast, almonds, rice flour, rose water and spices.

It was followed by a spicy lentil soup and then the main course: heaping platters of crisp, twice-roasted goose with garlic served with a warm salad of baked onions in sweet and sour sauce. The meal was rounded out by a form of spiced white wine called ippocrasso and honey-nut sweets served on fresh bay leaves. 

"We love medieval cooking," said Alfredo Properzi, one of the dinner organizers. Properzi, a local doctor, belongs to a civic association that fosters study and re-enactment of life in the Middle Ages. The recipes for the dinner, he said, came from cookbooks of the period. 

"One of the big differences was the spices that they used -- much more than today," he said. "Also, medieval cooks liked to use various spices to color food as well as season it.

The main speaker at the conference -- and my partner across the dining table -- was Ariel Toaff, an emeritus professor of Medieval and Rennaissance history at Bar Ilan University, who is the son of the reitred, longtime chief rabbi of Rome, Elio Toaff.

Ariel Toaff and a "medieval" waitress. Photo © Ruth Ellen Gruber

Ariel's wonderful book, Love, Work and Death: Jewish Life in Medieval Umbria, is one of my favorite books -- partly because I spend a lot of my time in Umbria (where so very few Jews live today that when my entire family is with me, we make up one of the major Jewish centers in the region) and partly because the book reads like a spicy novel, set in Assisi, Orvieto, Bevagna, Todi, Perugia, Terni, Foligno -- and other towns that I'm very familiar with.

The chapter headings say it all: "Sex, Love, and Marriage;" "Love of Life and Intimations of Mortality;" "Meat and Wine;" "The House of Prayer;" " Outcasts from Society;" "Witchcraft, Black Magic, and Ritual Murder;" "Converts and Apostates;" "The Pattern of Discrimination;" "Merchants and Craftsmen;" "Doctors and Surgeons;" "Banks and Bankers."

Ariel also authored Mangiare alla Giudia, an influential history of Jewish food and eating in Italy, which has not been translated into English. Both books served as inspiration for the Bevagna dinner. (See an article on Italian Jewish cuisine in English by Ariel by clicking HERE.)

"The dinner organizers asked me what would be a typical dish for the menu, and I immediately told them goose because goose was, so to speak, the Jewish pig," he said. "It had the same function for the Jewish table as the pig did for non-Jews. Every part of the animal was used, including for goose salami, goose sausage and goose ‘ham,’ and foie gras was also a Jewish specialty." 

Like today, he said, Jews in medieval times generally ate what the non-Jewish population did, adapting local recipes to the rules of kashrut. 

"Biancomangiare was also made sweet with milk, pine nuts, almonds and raisins," he said. "But if it was served with a meat dish, the Jews would substitute almond milk for dairy milk."
Also like today, certain dishes became Italian Jewish favorites. 

"Lentils were typically Jewish, and lentil soup was commonly eaten in the 14th and 15th centuries," Toaff said. "Being round, they symbolized the cycle of life. Another typical Jewish cooking style was sweet and sour, like the baked onion salad."

No Jews live today in Bevagna, but the city actively promotes its medieval history with festivals, pageants, Medieval dinners, and other events. The mayor told me that she was now thinking of how to add a Jewish component to all this -- and maybe even get a kosher winery started up.

There is particularly rich archival documentation about Bevagna's most prominent Jewish family in the 15th and early 16th centuries, the extended clan of the banker Abramo. Ariel Toaff recounts the story in great detail in "Love, Work and Death." it is a dramatic family saga that has a sort of rags to riches to rags again narrative framework.

Abramo owned banks in three towns, as well as a mansion, investment properties, farmland and many other holdings. But after his death in 1484, the family suffered a series of tragic setbacks, including deaths, bank failures and even a trumped-up claim by a young Bevagna boy that the family had lured him to their home and crucified him over Easter in 1485. Though apparently linked to a default on a loan to the Abramo bank by the boy’s mother, the allegations led to the banishment of several Abramo family members.

Click here to read full JTA article

H.K.Rakit Seafood Restaurant at Jalan Pantai Kampung Pasir Puteh - Pasir Gudang, Johor.

The H.K. Rakit Seafood Restaurant (N1.42801 E103.95605) is located at the Kampung Pasir Puteh, behind the Tanjung Puteri Golf Club of Pasir Gudang, Johor. The word 'Rakit' (in Malay) means 'Floating'...well, it's because the restaurant was built on the sea (Johor Straits), and it looks like (kind of...) floating on the water...but it won't shake! :) And H.K. is 'Hock Kee', might be the name of the owner...

H.K. Rakit Seafood Restaurant

There is a 'unpaved road' to drive through which about 1.5KM...we like this place because it won't be over crowded and you can enjoy your seafood dinner quitely...

The timber small alley that lead you to the restaurant...

The restaurant has indoor and outdoor session. It was a nice weather that evening, so we prefer to dine at the outdoor area...

The outdoor dining area...

There is another 'floating' dining area which is Really 'Float'. But the staff said because of low tide, and they temporary close that session. According to the staff, this area also become a beer garden when almost midnight...

The floating area of the H.K. Rakit Seafood Restaurant

The peaceful and calm environment is the main reason attracted us to dine here, especially accompany with a Nice sunset...unfortunately, we didn't manage to see the Red Ball that evening...

Peaceful and calm environment

The owner also has a mini Orchid garden in the dining area...are you a Orchid lover?!

 The orchid at the restaurant

The seafoods sell in the restaurant all are alive, well...they are Fresh!

The prawns

The crabs - my favorite!

Our order for the dinner :-
*  Steam fish (sea bass)
*  Steam clam (la-la) mixed with chili padi
*  Hot Plate bean curd (tou-fu)
*  Crabs in two flavor - Sweet sour & salted egg
Their signature dish is Salted Egg crabs

Steam sea bass

Clams

Hot plate bean curd

Sweet sour crabs

Salted egg crabs - signature crabs

All seafood dishes tasted above average, I like the Steam Clams which was really special cooking method with the chili padi. The Salted Egg Crab was Nice and you can taste the salted egg even in the crab meat! Excellent!

We enjoyed the seafood dinner in the scenic view for more than 2 hours...with the company of Tiger beers. It is not complete having a seafood dinner in the nice environment, cool sea breeze without the company of beers! At least for me...:)

The Salted Egg Crabs

The Damage : RM222.00 for 4 adults and 3 children included drinks. Reasonable price for the different dining experience!

Due to the restaurant situated quite far away from Johor Bahru town, otherwise...I will visit it every month!

If you haven't try it before, please visit the seafood restaurant at least Once. :)

Hock Kee Seafood Rakit & Restaurant

111, Jalan Pantai Kampung Pasir Puteh,

81700 Pasir Gudang, Johor.

Mobile Tel : 012-7309777 / 012-7134455 / 012-7984577

Loaction map of H.K. Rakit Seafood Restaurant at Tanjung Putri - Pasir Gudang.

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